Chinese, Germans Seek to Turn Chernobyl Wasteland to Solar Park

  • Thirteen foreign companies have applied for land permits
  • EBRD concerned about radiation levels, safety of projects

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant. View from Pripyat.

Source: Getty Images
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Chinese and Germans are among dozens of investors taking Ukraine up on its offer to turn the grounds of one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters into a massive solar park.

Thirteen international investors are among the 39 groups seeking Ukraine permission to install about 2 gigawatts of solar panels inside the radioactive exclusion zone surrounding the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant, according to Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Ostap Semerak. Two gigawatts is almost the capacity of two modern nuclear reactors, although atomic power unlike solar works day and night.